INFARCTION

A new ultra-sensitive blood test could in future help to send home two thirds of patients with very low risk of myocardial infarction who present in the emergency department due to chest pain, according to a study published Thursday.

That would relieve the emergency services. A new blood test sensitivity would indeed able to distinguish the degree of risk of myocardial infarction, according to a study published Thursday, and so, to send home two thirds of patients presenting in emergency services due chest pain.

“Until now, there was no easy way to rule out a heart attack in emergency services,” said Dr. Anoop Shah, of Edinburgh University, the lead author of the study published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Promising Advanced

To identify people with very low risk, the study authors used a new test to measure ultrasensitive troponin among 6,000 patients admitted to Scottish and American hospitals because of chest pain. The assay of troponin is already commonly prescribed blood analysis insofar as an increase in the level of troponin can indicate the occurrence of a myocardial infarction. The analysis is performed during the fourth hour of the onset of symptoms and was renewed twice, respectively in the 8th and 12th hour.

Researchers for their part showed that if patients had troponin levels below 5 ng / L (nanograms per liter) fairly quickly after their arrival to the emergency room, they ran very little risk over the next 30 days.

A rate below that figure, according to the researchers identified nearly two thirds of patients “very low risk and could have quickly out of the hospital safely” with a “negative predictive value” (probability not to suffer from an illness when negative test) 99.6%. This probability exists regardless of age, sex, or cardiovascular risk.